Black voters weigh in on 2020 candidates at National Action Network convention

getty_040519_nanconventionsharpton
getty_040519_nanconventionsharpton

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — A handful of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls will close out Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s annual convention in New York City on Friday attempting to win over black voters, a crucial demographic in winning the upcoming primary election.

Among the speakers are Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Criminal justice reform was one of the main topics during the first days of the convention, and Harris once again may have to defend criticism she’s faced on the issue linked to her tenure as California’s attorney general and district attorney of San Francisco.

Harris has described herself as a “progressive prosecutor” during that portion of her career, but in a January New York Times op-ed, the senator was accused of staying silent when urged to embrace reforms.

“Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors,” wrote Lara Bazelon, a University of San Francisco law professor.

A national Quinnipiac University poll of Democratic 2020 hopefuls shows Harris struggling to connect with black voters, garnering just 8 percent support from that demographic, well behind former Vice President Joe Biden’s field-leading 44 percent.

With 10 months until the first primary and an ever-growing field of candidates, some attending the conference have said that they have plenty of choices and plenty of time to decide whom to endorse.

Denise Hawley, who attended the conference on Wednesday and Thursday said, “I want to hear and listen what everyone has to say, and if it’s good for me and it’s good for them, we got it.”

In the South, African Americans account for a majority of Democratic primary voters, according to Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.

“You need those delegates in order to be able to clinch the nomination,” Gillespie told ABC News.

Earlier this week, presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro all said criminal justice reform was needed in the United States and also called for the legalization of marijuana and reparations for slavery.

“The country will never fully heal until we address the original sin of slavery,” said Castro, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama.

Buttigieg said that as president he would support a reparations bill, which he sees as an issue of “inter-generational injustice.”

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